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Beat Deviation for Tempo Estimation Algorithms

The series of beats in an arbitrary piece of music typically do not have a precisely consistent interval of time between them. A study was carried out to analyze beat deviation. Five musicians tapped beat sequences for 50 recordings taken from 16 different categories of music. A power curve was proposed to represent the beat deviation. The curve is shown to capture the majority (96.9%) of the beat data entered by the subjects in this study, with a minimum chance of nonbeat events being accepted as valid beats. The proposed power curve equation is compared to others in published research. Measures of BPM deviation used in previous studies are also considered.